10 Signings Real Madrid Want You To Forget About

3. Nicolas Anelka

Real Madrid's Thomas Gravesen of Denmark reacts during a 2nd round, 1st leg, Champions league soccer match against Arsenal at the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Tuesday Feb. 21, 2006. Arsenal won the game 1-0. (AP Photo/Paul White)
Michael Steele/EMPICS Sport

Having arrived at Arsenal in 1997 for a fee of just £500,000, a teenage Nicolas Anelka had scored 23 league goals in 65 games when Real Madrid came knocking. The Spanish club paid £22.3m for his services in 1999, with big things expected of the Frenchman. 

It didn't take Anelka long to fall out of favour at Madrid, with the fans, players and manager Vincent Del Bosque all apparently having a poor relationship with the striker. He even received a 45-day suspension at one point because of his refusal to train. 

Though there were brief high points (Anelka scored in both legs of the 1999 Champions League semi-final vs. Bayern), the writing was on the wall for the Frenchman. He was sold to his boyhood club PSG in 2000, having scored only two league goals in 19 league appearances for Real Madrid.

Having played for 12 different clubs over his career, Anelka is now the player-manager for Indian outfit Mumbai City, whom he signed for as a player in 2014. 

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Contributor

Journalism student hopping between London and the North-East. Boxing enthusiast and Football Manager addict. Was diagnosed with supporting Sunderland AFC as a child.